Learned Helplessness and What You Can Do About It


	Learned Helplessness and What You Can Do About It

deusdiabolus

5-14-2009 1:16 PM

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5-17-2009 4:29 PM

jay8h

If this is a learned behavior, surely one can be taught to do something about it. I wonder why our churches and social organizations are not trying to educate people about this?

5-19-2009 11:00 PM

deusdiabolus

I think a lot of organizations in modern society actually ENCOURAGE this response.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/193ccc0c-9e8a-4c2f-89d0-25bfcd8958a8/2BC36F36-9CE2-4B07-B2BD-08167E2F4BF1/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.silverknife.co.uk/productivity/2009/05/are-you-suffering-from-learned.html" href="http://www.silverknife.co.uk/productivity/2009/05/are-you-suffering-from-learned.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.silverknife.co.uk</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.silverknife.co.uk/productivity/2009/05/are-you-suffering-from-learned.html"><DIV><P class="zemanta-img"><A href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/22081417@N07/2753473693"><IMG alt="Helpless" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3008/2753473693_6d95314b97_m.jpg" /></A><SPAN class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image by <A href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/22081417@N07/2753473693">solidxsnake13224</A> via Flickr</SPAN></P>In 1967, behavioural psychologists Martin Seligman and Steve Maiers discovered quite by accident (while investigating simple conditioning) that dogs which were unable to escape from an unpleasant situation (small electrical shocks given through the floor of their box) gave up even trying. They were conditioned to be helpless, and would just lie there and take the shocks even when free to move.</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.silverknife.co.uk/productivity/2009/05/are-you-suffering-from-learned.html"><DIV>The ethics and humanity of the experiment are a topic for another time, but they gave psychologists a valuable insight into one of the causes of depression and demotivation - learned helplessness.</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.silverknife.co.uk/productivity/2009/05/are-you-suffering-from-learned.html"><DIV>Fortunately decades of behavioural research have also shown that what has been trained can be untrained. You just need to create a string of situations where you are <STRONG>visibly</STRONG> achieving what you set out to do.</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.silverknife.co.uk/productivity/2009/05/are-you-suffering-from-learned.html"><SPAN>Set yourself well-defined goals</SPAN></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.silverknife.co.uk/productivity/2009/05/are-you-suffering-from-learned.html"><SPAN>Break down your tasks</SPAN></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.silverknife.co.uk/productivity/2009/05/are-you-suffering-from-learned.html"><DIV><SPAN>Keep your successes visible</SPAN></DIV></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/2BC36F36-9CE2-4B07-B2BD-08167E2F4BF1/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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